


bring it on home

by Lirazel



Category: Infinite (Band), K-POP RPF, K-pop, Korean Pop, Kpop-Fandom
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, OT3, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 07:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirazel/pseuds/Lirazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Woohyun, it’s two in the morning.  What are you doing cooking?”</i>  Dongwoo's been worn down lately.  Woohyun and Sunggyu notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	bring it on home

It’s the sound of pans rattling in the kitchen that wakes Sunggyu, coalescing from hazy dreams of his mom at the stove when he was a little boy to the reality of someone messing around just outside his bedroom door. He’s cuddled up in a ball of warmth and duvet, and the room is dark except for a strip of light underneath the door, and it would be _so_ easy to turn over and go back to sleep. But he doesn’t need to listen to know that he won’t hear Woohyun’s even breathing in the bunk above his, so after a moment of internal whining, he sighs and tosses off the covers, wincing at the cold of the air and the floor against his bare feet.

He has to stand in the doorway for a while, blinking to let his eyes adjust to the sudden smack of light and breathing in the smell of food simmering. Once he can see again, he pads the few feet to the kitchen and he’s almost close enough to touch before Woohyun registers his presence.

“Hyung!” Woohyun fumbles a lid onto a pan, wiping his hand nervously against his sweatpants. _This kid._ “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Probably someone else would lie to make Woohyun feel better— _I had a bad dream, I needed to go to the bathroom_ —but Sunggyu doesn’t even consider it. “Woohyun, it’s two in the morning. What are you doing cooking?”

Woohyun turns away quickly, bending over the rice cooker like it requires his attention even though Sunggyu knows good and well it doesn’t—even Sungyeol can use that thing. “I couldn’t sleep and—“

“Bullshit.”

Sunggyu watches as Woohyun fidgets with the plug cord of the rice cooker, trying to remind himself to be patient. Sometimes Woohyun takes some prodding and then some waiting and though when they first met Sunggyu hadn’t put up with that, he’s…softened to Woohyun over the years. 

“Dongwoo will be home soon,” Woohyun suddenly bursts out, spinning to face Sunggyu as though the force of the words is turning him. “And—and Hoya, of course. And I have no idea what he’s—they’ve been eating lately and—“

It’s not like Sunggyu hadn’t known. Usually he’d just march out and say, “Nam Woohyun, why are you making food for Dongwoo at two in the morning?” But for some reason, when it’s Woohyun, he sometimes feels like he needs to let Woohyun confess it himself.

“How did you know they’re coming home soon?”

“What?” Woohyun’s trying to look innocent but he mostly just looks guilty. Dumbass.

“How did you know they’re going to be home soon?” Sunggyu repeats. “Even if you knew their schedule earlier, that doesn’t mean anything, they’re always getting shuffled around.”

Woohyun flushes. “I asked him to text me when he was on his way home,” he says, aiming for nonchalant and not making it. Sunggyu narrows his eyes.

“And how did you get him to agree to that? You know he’d never agree when he knows it’s just going to wake you up.” Because of course the rest of the members would be asleep when Infinite H gets home. Anyone would be. Anyone who’s not an idol currently promoting.

Woohyun turns away to add some spices to something bubbling on the stove—it smells amazing. Sunggyu’s stomach rumbles. “I…may have told him that I worry when I wake up and they’re not here and that I’d put my phone on silent so it wouldn’t wake me and that way I could just check when I wake up on my own.”

Sunggyu has to shake his head at that, leaning a hip against the counter and watching Woohyun’s capable hands select a knife and start slicing vegetables in perfectly even slices. “He’d feel terrible if he knew you were lying to him.” Sunggyu knows good and well that Woohyun hadn’t put his phone on silent.

“Yeah, well, he’s not going to know, is he?”

“I’m pretty sure he’ll figure it out when he walks in the door and there’s a twelve-course meal waiting for him.”

It’s Woohyun’s turn to roll his eyes as he slides the vegetables into a pot. “It’s not that complicated, hyung. It’s just a simple meal.”

Sunggyu snorts. “Let me guess—you wanted to make ton kalibi, but we didn’t have the ingredients.”

The way Woohyun purses his lips tells Sunggyu all he needs to know. He rolls his eyes again and crosses his arms over his chest, leaning back fully against the counter now.

“You should go back to bed, hyung, it’s not like you’re helping,” Woohyun says, opening the refrigerator.

“I’m fine,” Sunggyu says, and Woohyun doesn’t seem impressed, but he doesn’t push further, the two of them falling into silence interrupted only by the bubbling of water and the other quiet sounds of Woohyun cooking. It would be easy to fall asleep standing up, lulled by the warmth of the food preparations and Woohyun’s presence.

“You know we aren’t supposed to eat after 7:00,” Sunggyu finally volunteers mildly. 

Woohyun slams a spoon down onto the counter, the sound overly loud in the night quiet, and Sunggyu shoots him a warning look—the two youngest would sleep through that, but Sungyeol wakes up when a spider crosses the floor and the last thing they need is him tumbling out here to demand to know why they’re awake. Woohyun raises his hand in annoyed acknowledgment even as he snaps, “I don’t _care_ about those rules, hyung. Have you _seen_ him lately? I could snap one of his legs in half without even trying. He’s lost a _pants size_. Do you know the last time I actually managed to go down a pants size?”

Sunggyu has to bite his tongue to keep this conversation from turning into one about Woohyun’s obsession with his own weight and his completely delusional view of himself—that’s a conversation that never leads anywhere but Woohyun’s eyes flashing and him storming out and refusing to talk to Sunggyu for days on end. Besides, Woohyun’s right. Sunggyu’s been more than a little concerned over Dongwoo’s health as well. They’d seen each other for five minutes two days before—the last few days the rapper line has been gone by the time the rest of the members get up and doesn’t get in until they’re all asleep—and when Sunggyu had hugged him he’d felt the jut of Dongwoo’s hipbones, the outline of his ribs—not to mention noticing the bags under his eyes even makeup couldn’t quite conceal. Sunggyu sometimes forgets that Dongwoo is small at all; his energy, not to mention his stage presence, take up so much _room_ , filling in all the empty places in Infinite without ever crowding anyone else out. Sunggyu only really thinks of Dongwoo’s size when he has to laugh at the height difference when Dongwoo’s standing next to one of the maknae line—Sunggyu loves it when he stands next to Sungyeol in particular—or when he’s hugging him, times when he can’t _not_ notice. But despite being small-set and short, Dongwoo’s also always had such a solid, strong body, one that he knows exactly what to do with. Dongwoo inhabits his body in a way that Sunggyu has never seen anyone else do (he keeps hoping that that self-body relationship will rub off on Woohyun some, but so far it hasn’t, to his disappointment), and as a result he’s almost never sick because he knows how to listen to it (he should give lessons to Sungyeol, actually). 

But things have been different since Infinite H started promoting. It’s easy not to notice someone’s weight changes when you see them every day and your eyes adjust gradually to their transformations (something Sunggyu has learned from years with Woohyun and his constant battles with the scale), but sometimes he doesn’t see the rappers for days at a time now, and each time he does, the difference in Dongwoo is more noticeable. Hoya’s exhausted, too, obviously, but nothing compared to the way this is wearing Dongwoo down. Sometimes Sunggyu burns with anger, wanting to storm into the CEO’s office and demand Dongwoo be allowed to rest, but of course he’d never do that. All he can do is pray that promotions end quickly and that Dongwoo can recover rapidly once he gets back to the also-grueling but at-least-not-usually-torturous typical Infinite schedule.

And let Woohyun cook a meal for him at two in the morning, apparently.

He sighs again. “You think one meal’s going to help, Woo?”

“Well, it can’t hurt, can it?” Woohyun snaps. “ _Someone_ has to look out for him.”

Normally, Sunggyu would jump to offense at the implications of that, but it’s just too late and damn it—Woohyun is _right_. They have to look out for each other because if they don’t, who’s going to? And Dongwoo can be the worst at looking out for himself because he’s always so busy looking after everyone—and Woohyun’s just about the same. God, how did Sunggyu get stuck with these two painfully (stupidly) selfless people? It used to drive him crazy, and to be honest it still does. It’s just that he also can’t help but love them for it, too, damn them.

“Dongwoo wouldn’t like to know that you’re sacrificing your own sleep for him, though,” he points out. _I’m stuck with two damn **martyrs**._

“It’s the least I can do,” Woohyun shoots back, voice still tense. “It’s not like I’m doing anything else these days—just sitting around on my ass.”

Sunggyu has to snort at that, even as one of his hands finds its way to Woohyun waist, his thumb slipping underneath the worn fabric of his t-shirt and rubbing against the rise of Woohyun’s hipbone. Sunggyu’s still not standing too close, but he doesn’t have to be to feel Woohyun relax a bit at the touch. “You’re not ‘just sitting around on your ass,’ Woohyun. You haven’t ‘sat around on your ass’ in years. I don’t even think you know how to remember how to do that.” _It would probably do you some good if you did._

Woohyun might save the studied aegyo for the cameras and the screaming fans, but that doesn’t mean some of his own doesn’t pop up sometimes without him knowing it. Sunggyu isn’t sure whether he wants to roll his eyes or squeeze Woohyun tight at the sight of those plump lips pouting that way. “It feels like I am,” Woohyun insists. “I haven’t been doing anything worthwhile and—“

“Don’t even give me that, Nam Woohyun,” Sunggyu cuts him off, irritation winning the day. “You ran everything here while I was promoting by myself and now you’re working stupidly hard on getting ready for the new single for our next comeback. Besides,” he adds, “it’s not like we don’t all deserve a break.”

“Dongwoo doesn’t get one,” Woohyun insists stubbornly and probably Sunggyu would get annoyed at his obstinacy if he weren’t grimly amused at how they’re only talking about _one_ member of Infinite H. Maybe they sound like jerks, only worrying about Dongwoo when Hoya’s suffering right there with him, but Hoya would just laugh if he knew (well, Sunggyu sometimes suspects he _does_ know and that’s why he tosses them grins at completely unreasonable times), and besides, Hoya’s got Sungjong worrying over him, and Sungjong’s fierce, unsentimental concern is definitely worth at least Woohyun and Sunggyu’s combined. 

There’s really nothing else to say, so Sunggyu just waits in silence until Woohyun finishes the food preparations, shifting the food into containers and then stowing it in the oven to keep it warm.

“Can we go to bed now?” Sunggyu asks finally as Woohyun closes the over door.

“No one was making you stay up,” Woohyun points out, elbowing him anything but gently as he puts the pots and knives in the sink. Someone will clean them later. Probably.

Sunggyu doesn’t pursue that because there’s no way he’s going to tell Woohyun that he’d feel guilty if Woohyun was out here cooking and he was still sleeping in his warm—comfortable—tempting—perfect bed.

“Bed. Now. Please?” Sunggyu doesn’t often add the ‘please’ on there, especially with Woohyun, but _God_ he’s tired. He still hasn’t sufficiently recovered from his own solo activities, though he’s been sure not to let Woohyun see that (normally he wouldn’t get away with it, because Dongwoo would be watching, too, but Dongwoo’s been so incredibly busy lately that no one’s noticed how Sunggyu’s been dragging. Thankfully).

“Dongwoo won’t know there’s food if someone doesn’t tell him where it is,” Woohyun says, pushing past him into the living room, flipping off the lights as he goes.

“So write him a note.”

Woohyun shoots him a glare over his shoulder, but heads in the bedroom. Sighing with relief, Sunggyu follows him—only to run into him as Woohyun tries to push his way _out_ again, pillow and duvet in his arms.

“What the fuck are you _doing_?” Sunggyu demands, horror filling him at the sight.

“Shut the fuck up, hyung, the kids are sleeping,” Woohyun commands, arranging his things on the floor of the living room. And Sunggyu _knows_ what he’s doing, he just _knows_ , but—

“Nam Woohyun, tell me you are not going to sleep out here so that you’ll wake up when Dongwoo comes in. Tell me that you’re not.”

Woohyun ignores him, settling down in the little makeshift bed he’s made for himself, closing his eyes and pulling the covers up around his shoulders.

“Nam Woohyun!”

Nothing.

Sunggyu practically stomps his way into the bedroom, glaring fiercely over his shoulder at an oblivious Woohyun. “Dumbass,” he hisses, kicking the bedstead and then cursing under his breath as he shakes the pain out of his foot. He climbs into bed, wrestling the covers up around him, annoyed at the fact that the sheets have gotten cool again and he’ll have to wait till they absorb his body’s warmth. He shifts some, hoping that will help, but they still feel too cool and he can’t quite get comfortable and—

“Damn you, Nam Woohyun,” he mutters as he yanks his duvet off the bed and grabs his pillow, heading out into the living room.

Woohyun doesn’t crack his eyes open even at Sunggyu’s muttering as he stretches out on the floor. Or when, a few minutes later, Sunggyu complains, “It’s cold out here.”

“For fucks’ sake, hyung, you’re such a giant baby. Come over here.”

Normally Sunggyu puts up a fight when Woohyun tries to get him to come close (it’s a front, of course, pretending that he doesn’t want to be close to Woohyun, but he thinks it’s a pretty good one, no matter how much Woohyun smirks at him), but it’s the middle of the night and the floor really is cold and he’s worried about Dongwoo and Woohyun’s body warmth is _really_ appealing and—

“You have to wake me up when they come in,” he says suddenly into Woohyun’s shoulder. “If you two go to bed and leave me out here all night so that my back aches in the morning, I’ll rip out your rib cages in the morning.”

“Whatever, old man.”

But Sunggyu wakes up himself, however long later, to the sound of the door closing and undertones as the rappers kick off their shoes at the front door and pad down the hall. Woohyun releases him (Sunggyu definitely _doesn’t_ instantly miss his warmth) and sits up and Sunggyu eventually drags himself upright too.

“Woohyun! Hyung! Why are you sleeping out here? Is something wrong with your room?” Dongwoo’s blinking his eyes furiously in that way he does when he can barely keep them open, but despite that his voice is thick with concern even as it’s pitched low enough not to disturb any of the other sleeping members. He looks adorably confused, actually (not that Sunggyu would admit that), with his hair all mussed and his sweats swallowing his body (those used to fit well, Sunggyu notes sharply. Now they look two sizes too big). Hoya, behind him, just raises an eyebrow.

“No, we were waiting—I made you dinner!” Woohyun says, and Sunggyu snorts, earning a smack on the shoulder. 

“Woohyunnie, it’s almost three in the morning,” Dongwoo says, sounding bewildered and admonishing in a way only he can. _Fuck_ , Sunggyu’s missed him.

Woohyun is scrambling out of the covers, letting in cold air in his wake, and Sunggyu wraps his duvet around his shoulders like a robe. “Yeah, but I put it in the oven, it should still be warm and—oh, and there’s enough for you, too, Hoya,” Woohyun says, trying to catch Hoya where he’s headed for the door of his and Sungjong’s room.

“I’m fine, hyung,” Hoya says with a dismissive wave of his hand, mouth barely twitching. “I just want to sleep.” He waggles his eyebrows just the slightest bit at Dongwoo, who doesn’t seem to notice. “You just enjoy, okay, hyung?”

Dongwoo doesn’t answer because Woohyun’s pushed him by the shoulders to sit him down. Normally Sunggyu would assume that Dongwoo’s just letting Woohyun manhandle him because he wants to—Dongwoo never minds anyone’s touching. But the way he drops to the ground so quickly makes Sunggyu suspect that Dongwoo couldn’t have fought Woohyun off if he wanted to.

“You didn’t have to—you should be in bed sleeping. It’s cold out here and the floor is hard and—“ Dongwoo starts to babble, words slurred, but Woohyun cuts him off.

“We missed you, though,” Woohyun says, pulling the food out of the oven. “We wanted to see you.”

“But still—“

“We _wanted_ to,” Woohyun insists again.

It’s a testament to just how exhausted Dongwoo must be because he lets that go, dropping his head to rest on his hand as Woohyun bustles around in the kitchen looking for chopsticks and a napkin. Sunggyu watches as Dongwoo’s fingers knead at his temple, and he isn’t sure whether the feeling in his heart is rage or heartbreak. Dongwoo should never look like this. Even in the half-light of the kitchen and with the smears of not-quite-removed makeup still on Dongwoo’s face, Sunggyu can see how haggard he looks. He can see.

And Dongwoo looks cold, too, curled up into himself like that, his already-small body taking up even less room. Sunggyu grabs Woohyun’s abandoned comforter and pulls it around Dongwoo’s shoulders and Dongwoo just barely raises his head to give him the ghost of a grateful smile. In the place of his usual sunny gratitude, it’s hard to see. Sunggyu isn’t the physically comforting type, but he kind of wants to pull Dongwoo into his arms and—

“Here, Woo, it’s still warm,” Woohyun announces, plopping down beside them and pushing a bowl and some chopsticks into Dongwoo’s hands. The food smells good and Sunggyu is almost tempted to send Woohyun back to get him some, but then Woohyun grabs the edge of his duvet.

“Quit hogging the covers,” he says, trying to jerk the corner of the blanket around his own shoulder.

“Get your own! This one’s mine!”

“Dongwoo is using it—you don’t have to be so greedy, I’d share with you.”

“I don’t care, this is mine and it’s cold out here and I don’t want your bony elbows digging into my side.”

“You’re so selfish, hyung, just all the time.”

At any other time when Sunggyu and Woohyun start bickering that way, they can look up and find Dongwoo grinning at them fondly. Sunggyu has never understood what Dongwoo finds so amusing, but then Dongwoo’s never needed much of an excuse to smile. But now when Sunggyu glances up, he sees that Dongwoo’s head has dropped again so that his nose is just centimeters away from ending up in his bowl and—

“Dongwoo, wake up, you’re going to fall into your food,” Woohyun says.

Dongwoo’s head jerks up and he blinks again—it almost looks painful, how hard he opens and shuts his eyes—before trying to plaster on a smile that he can’t quite get to stick. “I’m sorry, Woohyun, it’s really good, it is—“ He fumbles with his chopsticks for a moment (and Dongwoo’s dexterous fingers do _not_ fumble, especially with something as common as chopsticks) and manages to get a bite into his mouth, again trying to smile as he chews as though proving his words.

Sunggyu sighs. These two. How will he ever survive them. “Woohyun, go put the food up.”

Two voices raise in protest. 

“But hyung, he hasn’t eaten—“

“But hyung, it’s good, I swear—“

“Can’t you see he’s just trying to humor you, Woohyun? He just wants to sleep but he doesn’t want you to feel bad or your cooking to go to waste. But it’ll be just as good tomorrow and—“

“He’s got schedules all day tomorrow, hyung, when will he eat it?”

“You can put it in a Bento box for him, and make one for Hoya, too. They can take it with them.”

Dongwoo’s opening his mouth to protest and Woohyun’s eyebrows are furrowed, but Sunggyu just rises and pulls Dongwoo to his feet (wincing once again as he realizes how slight Dongwoo has gotten and how he puts up no fight). Sunggyu takes the bowl from him and holds it out to Woohyun, saying quietly as he can so that Dongwoo won’t hear, “He really just wants to sleep.” He holds Woohyun’s eyes, trying to make him see that Dongwoo appreciates it and would inhale the food happily if he was awake enough to even acknowledge it, but he’s just _too tired_. After a moment, Woohyun relents, taking the bowl and nodding in understanding. Sometimes he gets so caught up in what he can do to take care of people that he can’t even see what they really need. Sunggyu will never understand the way Woohyun’s mind works.

He bends to scoop up his duvet and pillows and steers Dongwoo forward. 

“This isn’t the way to my room,” Dongwoo murmurs blearily, and Sunggyu is just impressed he’s awake enough to notice.

“No, it isn’t,” Sunggyu agrees, opening the door to his and Woohyun’s room and pushing Dongwoo gently inside.

“But the hyungs—“ Dongwoo says, no doubt concerned about the managers who will come to fetch them in the mornings.

“The hyungs can get their panties in a wad if they want to, it doesn’t matter,” Sunggyu says, leading Dongwoo to the lower bunk and guiding him down onto it. Sunggyu’s worried himself, more than once, of how the managers will react if they ever discover any of the members in a compromising position, but it just doesn’t matter right now. Besides, all any of them have the energy to do is sleep. 

Dongwoo makes a sound that could be protest or could be amusement, but he lets Sunggyu arrange him in the bed and then clamber over him to press his own back against the wall, pulling the covers up around Dongwoo in a comforting cocoon.

“Woohyunnie’s going to think I didn’t like his food.” The words slide out of Dongwoo’s mouth like pulled taffy, like he doesn’t have the energy to say them normally. Sunggyu slips an arm around his waist.

“I promise he won’t. He knows you love what he cooks. Just sleep, okay?”

Dongwoo’s eyes are closed, clearly having lost the battle to keep them open, but he’s still trying to argue even as his body goes limp in Sunggyu’s arms. “But Woohyunnnie wants—“

“Woohyunnie wants you to sleep now,” Sunggyu cuts him off. “Don’t you, Woohyunnie?”

Woohyun, pulling the door closed behind him, makes a grimace at Sunggyu he can barely make out in the almost dark of the room, but he doesn’t need to be able to see it to know it’s there—Woohyun is that predictable.

“I really do,” though, is all Woohyun says. “Sleep now, okay, Dongwoo?”

Woohyun’s hesitated near the foot of the bed as though he’s about to climb up the ladder but can’t quite bring himself to do it.

“Woo—“ Dongwoo can’t even get the name out because a monster yawn, one that makes his jaw pop audibly, overtakes him, but he waves his hand around impatiently as he does.

Sunggyu rolls his eyes once again. _Martyrs. Really._ “Get in the damn bed, Nam Woohyun,” he commands, holding the covers up just enough that the cold air won’t quite reach Dongwoo but that Woohyun will get the message that he needs to accept Dongwoo’s invitation. Woohyun sends him another scowl as he obeys, but Sunggyu doesn’t care because Dongwoo’s hand gropes around till it grabs Woohyun’s and can awkwardly tangle their fingers together (God, Dongwoo is so _tired_ ) and then he lets his cheek drop back down onto Sunggyu’s chest. Sunggyu knows good and well that Dongwoo’ll drool on him, leaving a puddle by the time he wakes, but Dongwoo’s body feels so warm yet delicate as Sunggyu folds himself around him and hears rustles as Woohyun does the same on Dongwoo’s other side, till they’re cradling him between them. The sound of Dongwoo’s even breathing fills the air (already asleep) and Sunggyu sighs. Dongwoo needs a shower, really, smelling a bit like stale sweat and bb cream and someone’s cigarette smoke (Sunggyu knows neither one of Infinite’s dancers would ever compromise their lungs that way), but Sunggyu can also catch a whiff of the sharp scent that Woohyun’s combined moisturizers and toners and whatever the hell else he uses on his face makes. It’s so warm already, under the covers, and though Sunggyu knows he won’t be able to stretch out without sending Woohyun tumbling off the other side of the bed, it’s dark and there’s the sound of both of the others breathing and it doesn’t take Sunggyu long at all to fall asleep.


End file.
